A lock of Frederick Douglass’s hair and photographs taken during the funeral procession of Ulysses S. Grant are part of a collection that spans the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State University.
The collection includes Grant’s letters and other writings. The library gives instruction on Grant’s life, the Civil War, Reconstruction and 19th Century America. It is indeed ironic that Mississippi houses the library of the Union Army General who later became president. Grant was born in 1822 in Ohio and died in 1885 in New York. He is best known as a United States Military General during the Civil War and as the 18th President of the United States of America. The irony includes the fact that Grant led the campaign against Vicksburg in 1863. Without Mississippi and the Confederacy chances are few people would have ever heard of Grant. His fame as a Union war hero won him the Presidency.
Perhaps it was fate that Grant’s memory landed in Bulldog Country. This fate might have started with a letter to Grant from Abraham Lincoln, who was President during the American Civil War. On August 17, 1864, when Grant was battling Confederate States of America General Robert E. Lee in the Virginia campaign, Lincoln wrote Grant the following: “Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke, as much as possible.” In fact, though, moving the papers to Mississippi was more than likely due to MSU’s reputation as a leading research institution.
The first volume of The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant appeared in 1967, and the last one, volume 32, was published in 2012. The papers have been at MSU since 2009 when the papers were transferred from Southern Illinois University. The collection is owned by the U.S. Grant Association. Most of the papers are photocopies of originals held in other repositories and by individuals around the world. MSU is responsible for their care and for making them available for research. The library also has a Mississippi Political Collection and a section on Abraham Lincoln donated by Frank and Virginia Williams and known as the Collection of Lincolniana.
Housed on the fourth floor of MSU’s Mitchell Memorial Library, the collection also features a museum with artifacts, interactive media, activities and experiences. For museum and library hours or to arrange a visit, call 662-325-0272. Information about the library is also available online at www.usgrantlibrary.org. Throughout the years that MSU has hosted the collection, thousands of people have visited the library to view and to research. The library can accommodate all class sizes from school ages K-12 to college undergraduate and graduate levels.
The United States has 15 presidential libraries operating under the National Archives and Records Administration. Most are located in the presidents’ home states.